Things are rapidly deteriorating in the US—Trump has effectively declared himself the totalitarian ruler of the United States, claiming he does not need to follow any laws after making several illegal decisions in just a few weeks that are undermining American democracy.
While we are rightfully outraged by Trump’s outbursts—such as his claim that Ukraine started the war against Russia or his refusal to rule out military action to seize Greenland—it is crucial not to be so distracted by these outrageous statements that we fail to notice how, according to many scholars, he is currently engaged in an authoritarian coup.
Trump and his billionaire friend Elon Musk have, in recent weeks, fired thousands of government employees and shut down everything from cancer research to food distribution in Sudan, amounting to billions in aid, in ways that violate the law. Just as in Sweden, it is the parliament that controls the budget and enacts laws, and the president cannot override this. That is why several American judges have recently ruled that Trump has broken the law and must reverse his decisions, which has sent Trump into a rage.
After quoting the dictator Napoleon on social media with the words: “He who saves his country breaks no law,” Trump has now issued an executive order declaring that only he can “determine what the law is.” Or, as Napoleon’s dictatorial predecessors might have put it: “I am the state.” Trump and Musk have also threatened one of the judges who ruled against them with impeachment, and Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, has stated that judges are not allowed to rule that the president is acting unlawfully.
In reality, it is precisely the judges’ duty to do so! But Trump is now moving quickly to ensure that he can act as illegally as he wants without consequences, like an autocrat, creating a constitutional crisis in the largest country of the Western world.
Among other actions, Trump has fired 17 experienced government watchdogs, known as “inspectors general,” whose long-standing role has been to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse within federal departments. These dismissals were carried out without providing Congress with the legally required 30-day advance notice and specific justifications for each case. The fact that the entire process was illegal does not bother Trump in the slightest, because, according to him, he alone determines what the law says, and no one can stop him from doing whatever he wants.
The fact that he is specifically firing government watchdogs clearly shows that the official justification for Trump and Musk’s dismantling of large parts of the state apparatus—reducing waste and abuse—is not true at all. The destruction of the state apparatus is instead being carried out in tandem with Trump firing everyone in the Department of Justice who was investigating crimes against him and ordering the deletion of all evidence related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol—an attack carried out by his supporters to make him a dictator. He is now working tirelessly to achieve that goal—ignoring what the courts say because he considers himself above the law.
The United States has long been, in many ways, a deeply flawed, unequal, and problematic country, but I was not prepared for how quickly and easily its democratic foundations could collapse. Yet, this is precisely what Trump has always aimed for.
The good news is that no authoritarian regime can endure if the people refuse to comply. Research from Harvard University shows that if just four percent of a population engages in nonviolent resistance against an authoritarian regime, the regime almost always collapses. This is where all democratic forces must stand together—especially churches, which have a wealth of experience worldwide in resisting authoritarian regimes!
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
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